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Mail Merge Error - The Selection does not consist of heading levels

Anonymous
2022-05-26T20:37:21+00:00

I'm hoping for some help - I'm mail merging some letters, this is working fine, but when I try to save the letters as individual documents using outline view, I get an error message saying "the selection does not consist of heading levels" I've tried adding a heading using the Styles Option.

I've made some text at the top of the letters "Heading 1" but Im still getting the error message. Have also tried making the sign off at the end of the letter "Heading 2" - this isn't working either. Finally, I've gone back to having "Heading 1" and ensuring the text is actually in the "body" style. Still no luck.

I've watched and rewatched online tutorials, but nothing seems to be solving this particular problem, as I have done the obvious thing of adding a header. Any advice or suggestions please?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | Other | Windows

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  1. Paul Edstein 82,861 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-07-23T00:23:08+00:00

    See Split Merged Output to Separate Documents and, better still, Send Mailmerge Output to Individual Files in the Mailmerge Tips & Tricks page at: https://www.msofficeforums.com/mail-merge/21803-mailmerge-tips-tricks.html

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-07-25T15:26:38+00:00

    Thank you Paul, but unfortunately I don't understand your Tips & Tricks nor do I know how to type in code. I'm just trying to mail merge from excel to word and then save each letter into an individual word document.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-07-22T22:39:42+00:00

    I have the same exact issue and I've watched several videos. It's not that hard but I keep getting the same message

    .

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  4. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2022-05-26T22:35:34+00:00

    Use the Merge to Indivdiual Documents facility on my Merge Tools Add-in that is contained in the MERGE TOOLS ADD-IN.zip file that you can download from the following page of my One Drive:

    https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmuIXmFDy-1ahDYSiUNl1pFAvGvI?e=srSq6A

    Extract the files from the archive and read the:

    “READ ME – Setting up and using the Merge Tools Add-in.pdf

    to see how to install and use the various tools.

    Using those tools, it is possible to perform the following types of merge that cannot be done with Mail Merge “out-of-the-box”:

    • Merge to e-mail messages either with or without attachments, with the documents created by the merge being sent as either Word or PDF attachments or as the body of the e-mail message.
    • Merge to individual documents in either Word or PDF format with the filenames being supplied by the data in one of the fields in the data source
    • Many to One type merges, which can be used for creating documents such as invoices where there are multiple records in the data source that have common data in one of the fields
    • Merging to a document that will include a chart that is unique to each record in the data source
    • Merging a document with Content Controls
    • Merging a document that contains Legacy FormFields
    • Duplex Merges
    • Merging to a printer that will collate and staple the output created from each record in the data source.

    The requirements for using the system are:

    • The mail merge main document must be of the Letters type, though that does not mean that the output cannot be sent as an e-mail message where relevant.
    • For the Many To One, Merge with Attachments and Merge to Individual Docs utilities, the data source may be either a table or query in an Access database, or in the form of an Excel worksheet. For the Chart Merge utility, see the Mail Merging with Charts document that is included in the Merge Tools Add-in Zip file for additional requirements for the data source for use with that utility
    • For a data source in the form of an Excel worksheet, the field names must be in the first row of the worksheet and there must be a field name in all of the cells in that row that are within the range of columns that contain the data.
    • For both types of data source, the field names must contain only alphanumeric characters (No @,#,$,%,&,(,), etc) and the field names must not start with a numeric character (0-9). The number of characters in the field names, including spaces, must not be more than 40.

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-05-27T09:26:54+00:00

    Thanks, but this doesnt really help, as it doesn't directly provide a solution to my problem. Im still getting this response- The Selection does not consist of heading levels

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